Violent Predator Tagged With Dangerous Offender Label By Judge
Posted June 9, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
His name is Jason Pilgrim and while he doesn’t share the same reputation as Paul Bernardo, he has one thing in common with the killer – neither one is likely to ever be released from jail.
The 33-year-old will serve the rest of his life behind bars, after being declared a dangerous offender with a history of horrific attacks against women.
You may never have heard of the convicted predator, but far too many women have. He first came to the attention of authorities in May 1998, when he grabbed a 15-year-old girl walking home from school and dragged her into a wooded area near the West Humber River and sexually assaulted her.
He served almost four years for that crime.
He was released on parole in October 2001 and was out for just four days before he struck again, this time clutching the hand of an unsuspecting 37-year-old woman at the same location and dragging her into the woods. The victim screamed as she tried desperately to get him to release his grip, but he beat her until she was unconscious to keep her quiet.
He fled but the DNA captured under her fingernails as she tried to fight him off would prove pivotal. It came into play again in October 2003, when he was found guilty of beating up his girlfriend. When cops ordered him to surrender his DNA they compared it to previous crimes and got a match to the second Humber River victim.
Now five years later, his fate lay in the hands of Justice J. Bellamy, who decided the repeat offender is simply too dangerous to ever be out in society again. The jurist described Pilgrim as a “charming, attractive young man with an easy smile” who is also a “diagnosed psychopath.”
He has dozens of other violent offences on his record and has spent most of his life in jail. Now, he’ll be staying there for good. “This is not to punish him,” the judge insists, but to “protect the public from him.”
He feels Pilgrim is almost certain to re-offend and calls him “extraordinarily violent.”
Only Pilgrim’s mother and older sister were in the Toronto courtroom Monday as the final sentence was delivered. The latter broke down in tears after the judge’s pronouncement, claiming her brother “can be fixed” – but bitterly decrying the fact that no one has ever tried.
Sketch by CityNews Court Reporter Marianne Boucher
